Kelley: Budget Submitted To Senate, House Begins Discussions On SB113

This week the Missouri House of Representatives passed and sent to the Senate its version of the budget. The total amount comes to a little over $23 billion. Of this amount, less than $7 billion is General Revenue over which the Legislature has more control.

While there was some debate and several amendments were offered, I was told it was nothing like in years past when debate would drag on for days. There were a few changes made, but not many.

One area of controversy has focused on the way Governor Jay Nixon paid for his state related travel. Rather than pay for it from his office budget, he has been billing state agencies for his trips, even when there was no one from the agency traveling with him. Restrictions were added prohibiting agencies other than Public Safety from paying for the governor’s travel. Originally, $500,000 was added to the governor’s office budget, but during debate the money was diverted to a school dropout prevention program.

Spending for public education stayed level from last year, although it is now $200 million less than what the formula called for this year. Colleges and universities took a seven percent cut in this year’s budget. Other areas of note include cutting $8.3 million from the Lottery advertising budget and capping salaries of employees working for statewide elected officials at $86,500.

The House Ag Policy Committee held a hearing on SB113, the fix for Proposition B sponsored by Senator Mike Parson. The hearing went on for about two hours as both sides made impassioned pleas to make their case. At one point the lobbyist for HSUS stated, “If you support SB113, you support animal cruelty. By the looks on the faces of committee members, it was obvious she had offended most everyone on the committee.

Director of Agriculture Dr. Jon Hagler testified SB113 would actually help go after the bad breeders as it would give his department better funding and enforcement. He said as Proposition B is currently written there is not a single licensed breeder in Missouri that could meet the new requirements.

The committee is expected to vote on the bill next week. If it passes the House unchanged, it will go to Gov. Nixon’s desk for his approval or veto. If it is changed in any way, it will have to go back to the Senate for further debate.